Arkansas solar braces for net metering clampdown

SOLAR: Arkansas’ solar industry prepares for new net metering rules that add restrictions and reduce utility credits for newly connected solar systems to less than half of what existing system owners receive. (Arkansas Business)

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OIL & GAS:

• Texas lawmakers question whether state regulators are up to the job of overseeing a $5 billion energy loan program after they initially approved a company’s plan to build a gas-fired power plant despite flaws that eventually led to its rejection. (Texas Tribune)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana, has become the locus of America’s natural gas industry, but its location between Houston and New Orleans exposes it to the brunt of climate change. (Guardian)
• Virginia activists discuss their successful fight against the Atlantic Coast Pipeline nearly five years ago as they consider how to block newer natural gas projects. (WVIR)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Virginia moves haltingly toward vehicle electrification, with Volvo and other manufacturers moving to add EV lines even as Republicans try to decouple the state from California EV goals. (Virginia Mercury)
• United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain speaks to workers at Volkswagen’s newly unionized plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, ahead of contract negotiations. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• The first electric U.S. Post Office trucks are on the road in Georgia and already winning praise from drivers who prefer them to the previous hot, noisy and inefficient combustion vehicles. (Associated Press)
• A Florida school district receives $9 million from the U.S. EPA to buy 23 electric school buses. (WUFT)

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MANUFACTURING: Georgia leaders hail the state’s success in attracting electric vehicle and solar panel factories as a “new industrial revolution.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription)

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WIND: Arkansas’ first three wind farms are under construction or in the planning stages. (Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, subscription)

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COAL ASH: Experts call for mitigation actions after finding high levels of arsenic and radium in coal ash near a North Carolina daycare center. (WCNC)

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BIOMASS: Georgia regulators consider Georgia Power’s request to purchase up to 80 MW of biomass-fired power from three plants ahead of a scheduled vote this week. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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COAL: The former leader of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign discusses West Virginia officials’ attempts to prop up coal as a power source. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

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CLIMATE:

• The relatively weak Hurricane Francine exposed critical drainage flaws in parts of Louisiana that could lead to widespread flooding during a more extreme storm, officials say. (NOLA.com)
• Democratic U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says Florida is “worst and first in what climate change is doing to property insurance rates,” and serves as a preview for what other coastal areas face if climate change goes unaddressed. (Florida Phoenix)

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COMMENTARY: The presidential campaign has focused on unrealistic energy policy proposals, with the idea of banning fracking likely pushing utilities back to coal and the promise of $2/gallon gasoline liable to push oil companies out of business, writes a columnist. (Houston Chronicle)

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